


Third From The Sun

by Gaffsie



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-16
Updated: 2010-04-16
Packaged: 2017-10-08 23:49:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gaffsie/pseuds/Gaffsie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ronon is determined to show John a good time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Third From The Sun

Ronon knew that a lot of people were happy about Atlantis being back on earth. McKay couldn't stop crowing about all the proofs he could finally publish and rub in the face of the scientific community and his sister (he could sometimes be heard muttering something about finally showing her who was the true genius of the family), Jennifer went to Wisconsin to visit her father every chance she got and hardly a weekend went by without Amelia, Dusty and Anne taking a transport into San Fransisco for a girls' night out.

Ronon was happy that she was enjoying herself. During those first hectic weeks on earth, when Sheppard had been locked up in endless meetings at the SGC and Ronon was going stir crazy in Atlantis, Amelia had shown up at his door and taken him into the earth city he'd previously only looked out at from Atlantis' windows and balconies. They'd walked the streets, visited the stores and market stalls, and when they'd had the time, she'd shown him the forests, mountains and beaches surrounding the city. Amelia was a good friend.

Teyla and Kanaan missed the Athosians, and Teyla had been in her own share of meetings about Atlantis' future, but the two of them had each other, and they had Torren and although they were eager to return Atlantis to its rightful place they were at ease on earth, even going so far as venture out in San Fransisco on their own.

_Sheppard, on the other hand_; Ronon wondered who he thought he was fooling. Sheppard hadn't had a single day off since Atlantis landed on earth. After his part in the meetings were over, he'd had ample opportunity, but he'd found ways to keep himself busy anyway he could. When he wasn't finishing "urgent" paperwork, he was overseeing the training of the new marines, organizing city-wide emergency drills or helping Zelenka evaluate structural damage to the city. He was worried and tense and the dark circles under his eyes kept becoming more pronounced with every passing day. Their daily runs and sparring sessions obviously weren't enough to keep his mind sufficiently distracted from city business.

Even Woolsey had found the time to go out for dinner with old friends and he loved bureaucratic bullshit, but John apparently still thought that he could get away with saying there was too much work to be done for him to take a day off and go out for... - And that was the real problem, Ronon knew. Even if John were to take a day off, what would he do with it? As far as Ronon knew, he didn't have any friends left on earth. There was always the brother, but their truce was an uneasy one, and a dinner spent with Dave Sheppard was only going to make John tenser still.

Sheppard might not have wanted a break, but he needed one, and Ronon knew how to give him just that. The fact that it'd give Ronon something to do with his time as well as giving him an opportunity to spend some time alone with John was just a bonus.

As missions went, it was a fairly simple one. Ronon knew John, after all, and with a little help from Amelia, he managed to set everything up to his satisfaction.

Sheppard liked college football. Ronon had grown quite fond of the sport himself since coming to Atlantis - it didn't hold the same excitement for him as a good game of kahreze, but he liked the strategy behind it. Two tickets to a San Diego Spartans game were soon procured.

Sheppard liked things that went fast. Ronon did too. He made a reservation for a Dodge Viper at a rental place. He didn't really know if that was the kind of car that Sheppard would appreciate, but he figured the racing stripe on the hood was a good sign.

Judging by the animated way John had talked Teyla into taking Torren and Kanaan with her to the funfair she'd seen a mention of in the paper, Ronon had a feeling he liked that too. Ronon had never been to one, not even with Amelia, but it sounded like the sort of place he would have liked as a child. Amelia helped him find a small permanent fair that was situated reasonably near the city. It screwed up his time schedule a little, but if he could only talk John into taking a three day weekend, they'd be able to catch both the fair and the game and still have a day left for surfing.

***

John had been surprised when Ronon said that he wanted them to spend a weekend together in San Francisco. They hadn't really been alone together like that since Keller went with Rodney to his physics shindig and John made Ronon go camping with him to get his mind off the whole sorry Keller business.

Although a small and pathetic part of him had been glad that he'd still be having Ronon to himself, mostly he felt about as flummoxed and wounded on Ronon's behalf as Ronon did. Still, after that first night, when Ronon had gotten about as drunk as a skunk and practically passed out by the fire, it'd been a nice trip.

Neither one of them would have minded making a habit of it, John knew, but there had simply not been any time. And then Ronon started hanging out with Amelia Banks and John figured that the spark he sometimes felt between them had only existed in his imagination and decided being a third wheel was just too pathetic, even for him.

John had asked Ronon if there was anything in particular that he wanted to do, but Ronon had refused to divulge any details. John had agreed anyway. Ronon had always been difficult to say no to.

When they landed at the improvised landing pad the Atlantis personnel used for their trips to and from the city it had been a surprise when Ronon brought him past all the conspicuously inconspicuous government issued vehicles to a Dodge Viper parked at the outskirts of the small lot and tossed him the keys. It had been an even bigger surprise when he told him to drive them to Santa Cruz. He did though, and gladly too, because once they were out of the city and on the freeway, the car handled perfectly. The third surprise came when Ronon directed him towards the Santa Cruz boardwalk. Okay, technically it was the fourth surprise; Ronon had also had the forethought to bring a Johnny Cash CD with him (one he had stolen from John, no less).

"Been a while since I visited a place like this," John said.

"Figured," Ronon said, and John could swear he looked _smug_.

"I'm hungry," John said, and they'd ended up buying hotdogs at the first food stand they came across. After that they had ambled down the boardwalk companionably. They'd ridden the sea swing, the Hurricane, and when Ronon had declared that the ferris wheel looked dull, the Rock-O-Plane. They had even walked to the far end of one of the piers to look at the sea lions. John was beginning to feel like Ronon had tricked him out on a date. A somewhat juvenile date, but still.

They were on their way to the bumper cars when they caught sight of a teenaged boy attempting to steal the backpack that was dangling carelessly from the shoulder of a girl his own age. She fought back, but in the end he managed to wrestle it away from her. The people around them were either both blind and deaf or pretending really hard to be oblivious to the situation, but Ronon gave chase as soon as he understood what was going on. John just stood back and enjoyed the show.

The young man was tackled to the ground within seconds. John had long known that Ronon was incredibly quick on his feet, and now the shoplifter knew too, beyond a shadow of a doubt. John watched Ronon rip the backpack from the guy and drag him off the ground so quickly that it almost looked like one fluid motion. He propelled him to the shocked-looking security guard a few yards away and then jogged back to the young woman whose bag had been stolen. He gave it back to her without a word, and she was too speechless to thank him. Considering that John could see her star struck look from where he was standing, he assumed that Ronon would get the message anyway.

"Only you," John said fondly when Ronon returned, followed by the stares of what seemed to be the entire boardwalk. Ronon just quirked an eyebrow at him, but John thought he looked pleased. "What do you want to do next, big guy?"

Ronon shrugged. "Up to you."

John looked up at him, feeling an odd mixture of exasperation and tenderness for him. "I know what you're doing," he started, "and I appreciate it; it's not that, but this shouldn't just be about me. Even if I have been a sorry bastard lately. What do _you_ want to do, Ronon?"

Ronon just looked at him for a long moment. "There is one place," he finally said. "Amelia showed me."

To John's ears, it sounded faintly challenging.

John was man enough to admit that he'd been jealous of Banks at first. She hadn't monopolized Ronon's time to the extent that John had been in any way justified in feeling cast aside, but that hadn't stopped him from feeling stupidly upset by the fact that Ronon had made a new friend. It had made him feel like such an asshole that he hadn't been able to feel as happy for Ronon as he ought to, had he not been such a selfish bastard. The one bright spot had been that he'd been so sure that Ronon hadn't noticed, but now John realized that he'd been deluding himself in more ways than one. Well, there was no time like the present for redeeming oneself.

"Sounds good, " he said lightly. "Lead the way, Chewie."

They walked back to the parking lot in companionable silence. John reflected on how the silences he and Ronon shared were nothing like the strained silence he'd shared with Nancy at the end. The calm was still loaded with things unsaid, but it felt less like the calm before a thunderstorm and more like the last seconds before take-off.

When they reached their rental Viper John lobbed the car keys to Ronon and walked over to the passenger side. "I don't know the way," John said to Ronon's questioning glance.

"Can't. Drive," Ronon enunciated slowly, like John was a particularly dim child.

John couldn't hide his incredulity. "C'mon, you mean to tell me that Banks never taught you to drive?"

"No," Ronon said. The 'why should she?' was implied, John felt.

"Right. Guess we have something to occupy ourselves with on our free time then." He walked over to the driver's side. "Looks like I'll be driving today though. Not the right time or place for your first lesson."

They got in the car and John started up the engine. Johnny Cash picked up where he had left off, singing about understanding your man. In that moment, it struck John as pretty funny. Unlike the man in the song, he really was understood. Ronon got him in a way that few people did. Even if they never moved past the boundaries of their friendship, he would be content. He looked over at Ronon, who was watching the road intently.

"So, where are we going?"

"San Francisco," Ronon said.

"That's mighty specific," John said, but he found that he didn't really mind the secrecy.

***

"Keep going," Ronon said once they reached the city and he noticed John's questioning glance. John kept going.

John turned off Highway 1 in Marin City at Ronon's urging and continued through Almonte and Tamalpais Valley. At this point he was pretty sure where they were heading, and Ronon proved him right when he told John to turn left to Muir Woods road.

***

At first John was disheartened by the amount of people they passed. but as they walked past the deliberately rustic sign proclaiming that they'd reached Muir Woods and further into the the forest, the crowd thinned considerably and eventually they were alone. The silence, only broken by the sound of the wind rustling in the bushes and insects buzzing about their business, was almost eerie. It had been too long since John had been out of the city.

They found a gnarled root not far from the trail and went to sit down on it. "Didn't know you liked redwoods," John said once they'd admired the surrounding nature for a while.

"Reminds me of home," Ronon simply said.

"I had no idea."

Ronon bumped his shoulder and smiled. "Was more to Sateda than the city, Sheppard," he said.

Right. It was hard to think of Sateda as anything else but the bombed out husk of the city they'd trailed Ronon to after he'd been made the Wraiths' plaything for the second time, but of course the whole planet had never been one huge city. "Spend a lot time in the woodlands?" John asked curiously.

Ronon smiled again. "I was a city boy, but I had relatives in the logging business. Used to spend my holidays helping them with river logging."

"Of your own free will?" John couldn't help slip out.

That startled a laugh out of Ronon. "No. The woods were beautiful though. I painted them, once."

"I always did have a thing for artistic types," John said, before his brain had time to connect with his mouth with a much-needed 'abort! abort!' message.

Ronon looked about as surprised with John's boldness as John felt. "I'm glad," he warmly said, and took John's hand in his. It was a disturbingly junior high gesture, and more disturbing still was the way it made John feel warm all over. But, John thought, maybe reconnecting with his inner 12-year-old wasn't all that bad.


End file.
